During recent years there has been substantial impact on industrial finishing brought about by the environmental movement. Legislation and stringent regulations have been enacted limiting the amounts and kinds of volatile organic liquids that can be emitted during industrial finishing operations and curing of coatings. As a means of meeting these new strict standards, there has been considerable investigation into the development of polyester resins which can be formulated into high solids coatings and paints. It is to the production of such high solids polyester resins, coatings and paints that the present invention is directed.